Results and pics from my first year prospecting

[dagaro17]

Happy New Year everyone!

I've been on this site for a little over a year now and I have learned a lot from everyone's posts. Thank you for all the great info. I wanted to share my experience as 2019 was my first year prospecting. A year and a half ago I had never even touched a gold pan and now I have full on gold fever!
I live a couple of hours from the Klamath Mountains in far northern California which is where I did all of my prospecting. I found 95% of my gold in a medium sized creek where there are signs of old workings (ground sluicing, etc..). I even found a couple of relics. A broken pickaxe and a hand forged rock pick hammer. Anyone know how old these are?


The first couple of times out I found virtually nothing but a couple of tiny flecks. The 3rd time out by random chance I saw a flash of gold a couple of inches underwater stuck in a thin crack in the bedrock. That lead me to a couple more and although I've searched probably a mile of the creek, only in that section of creek (10 x 20') has there been any accumulation of gold. Here's a pic of the gold on my 3rd day out.

I wouldn't have even searched there as it a straight section of creek and most of the the bedrock is smooth and buried under a lot of overburden. After that I spent a lot of time there with hand tools and a five gallon bucket over the last year when I had the time and pulled out about 11.5 grams with largest piece at .47 grams. I probably made about $3/hr and loved every minute! This post is getting long so I'll just post a few more pics and call it good. Good luck out there everyone!

 

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[beekbuster]

good luck with your new unit! if youre finding birdshot, youre doing it right.

 

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[Bejay]

Your thread/post began telling a story I could have told many years ago. A couple of my comments may offer some insight. The smooth bedrock gives evidence that the movement of gravels over the many years has created the smoothness....and allowed gold to be flushed further downstream. But......where and if you can find "places that catch and hold" you can find nice gold.....and usually they are heavy pieces (as the fines tend to wash downstream). Over the 40 years of working such a stream I have come to appreciate any huge boulders that are tucked into the streambed and or stream bank.

That said I also acquired some claims 6 miles downstream of such an area I just described. 6 miles downstream I find lots of flakes, fines and some pickers.....nuggets are few and far between. Down there The gold is located in the extensive gravel bars and old river deposits alongside the streambed.

Bejay

 

[dagaro17]

beekbuster: Well, I didn't find birdshot, but I found about 40 nails, 20 shell casings, aluminum foil, hot rocks and wire on my first time out with a metal detector in the rain. No gold, until I spent an hour or so crevicing with hand tools (one piece, .10 gram). Definitely a learning curve but still really fun.

Bejay: I appreciate your insights and I think you are right. Part of the fun is trying to figure out the mysteries of why the gold happens to be where it is and not where it "should" be. I can't wait to get back on the creek and check out some areas around a couple of large boulders. Thanks.

 

[Silveraith]

I admire your determination. Best of Luck.